“Morgan, who had stopped and was intently watching
the agitated chaparral, said nothing, but had cocked
both barrels of his gun and was holding it in readiness
to aim. I thought him a trifle excited, which
surprised me, for he had a reputation for exceptional
coolness, even in moments of sudden and imminent peril.

“‘O, come,’ I said. ’You
are not going to fill up a deer with quail-shot,
are you?’

“Still he did not reply; but catching a sight
of his face as he turned it slightly toward me I was
struck by the intensity of his look. Then I
understood that we had serious business in hand and
my first conjecture was that we had ‘jumped’
a grizzly. I advanced to Morgan’s side,
cocking my piece as I moved.

“The bushes were now quiet and the sounds had
ceased, but Morgan was as attentive to the place as
before.

“‘What is it? What the devil is
it?’ I asked.

“‘That Damned Thing!’ he replied,
without turning his head. His voice was husky
and unnatural. He trembled visibly.

“I was about to speak further, when I observed
the wild oats near the place of the disturbance moving
in the most inexplicable way. I can hardly describe
it. It seemed as if stirred by a streak of wind,
which not only bent it, but pressed it down—­crushed
it so that it did not rise; and this movement was
slowly prolonging itself directly toward us.

“Nothing that I had ever seen had affected me
so strangely as this unfamiliar and unaccountable
phenomenon, yet I am unable to recall any sense of
fear. I remember—­and tell it here
because, singularly enough, I recollected it then—­that
once in looking carelessly out of an open window I
momentarily mistook a small tree close at hand for
one of a group of larger trees at a little distance
away. It looked the same size as the others,
but being more distinctly and sharply defined in mass
and detail seemed out of harmony with them. It
was a mere falsification of the law of aerial perspective,
but it startled, almost terrified me. We so
rely upon the orderly operation of familiar natural
laws that any seeming suspension of them is noted as
a menace to our safety, a warning of unthinkable calamity.
So now the apparently causeless movement of the herbage
and the slow, undeviating approach of the line of
disturbance were distinctly disquieting. My
companion appeared actually frightened, and I could
hardly credit my senses when I saw him suddenly throw
his gun to his shoulder and fire both barrels at the
agitated grain! Before the smoke of the discharge
had cleared away I heard a loud savage cry—­a
scream like that of a wild animal—­and flinging
his gun upon the ground Morgan sprang away and ran
swiftly from the spot. At the same instant I
was thrown violently to the ground by the impact of
something unseen in the smoke—­some soft,
heavy substance that seemed thrown against me with
great force.